Lost US Federal Notes, Japanese Currencies Recovered In Southern Philippines

Filipino doctor Salvacion Kempe shows some of US treasury and foreign currencies in her collections. The notes were recovered by Lumad tribesmen in the southern Philippines and have been kept the past seven decades. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service/Ben Balce)

ILIGAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 13 Jul) – Billions of dollars in old Federal treasury and reserved notes and Japanese currencies have been recovered in the southern Philippines.

A Filipino doctor and head of a religious organization in the southern city of Iligan said she has in her possession some of the lost items.

Dr Salvacion Kempe, of the Gospel Ministry of the Holy Spirit for Salvation (GMHSS), said she got the treasury notes from Lumad tribesmen in the southern Philippines and kept it for a long time until now.

She said the notes have to be inspected by US authorities for its authenticity. “I cannot say it is 100 percent authentic but basing on how it is being securely kept in the black boxes including its markers and symbols, I think these are what the US government is looking for,“ she said.

But for security reasons, she said, she would only reveal the place where she hides the Federal notes to US officials. Kempe said she is willing to return the old notes which date back in the 1930s.

“There are lots of these in one of the places in Mindanao. But for now, while the US government has not yet responded to my letter on what action to take to redeem their belongings, I would not reveal where it is located,“ she said. Kempe has written US President George W. Bush on June 22 about the Federal notes, but got no reply.

“In fact, all these items need to be airlifted though a plane because they are too many and too heavy,“ she said. In her letter, Kempe said, she urged the president to send a team to check the authenticity of the treasury bonds.

Local treasure hunters and financial analysts said all these US treasury bonds were already demonetized last year and have no value at all. “They are already expired and therefore it has no more value at all,“ one expert said, but added, the notes could still be sold through auction as antique collections.

“It’s already an antique collectors items and it may have bigger value if it can be proven to be rare items.” In the past years, the Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation have arrested several people who imprinted trillions of fake foreign currencies and US treasury bonds. (Ben Balce)